Robert Boulin

Robert Boulin (20 July 1920 – 30 October 1979) was a French politician who served as Minister of Labour in the French Cabinet and was at the centre of a major real-estate scandal that ended only with his death in mysterious circumstances. At the time of his death he was the longest serving minister in post-revolution French history; only Louis XIV's Colbert served longer.

Boulin was born in Villandraut, Gironde. A Gaullist who joined the Free French movement in 1940, and rose to lead the movement in Navarre – an achievement for which he was awarded the croix de guerre – Boulin was known for his moderation; the courtesy with which he treated his political opponents led to a reputation as a skilled negotiator.

Boulin's first ministerial position was as refugee minister in 1961, when France was winding up the Algerian war preparing to repatriate more than a million French settlers.

Boulin served in the three governments following the establishment of the Fifth Republic in nine different posts; he occupied ministerial posts for fifteen years. His only break in ministerial service came from 1973 to 1976, when he was sidelined for having worked for Chaban-Delmas against Valéry Giscard in the presidential elections.

In 1979, when he was being tipped as a successor to the unpopular Raymond Barre as Prime Minister of France, the satirical and investigative weekly Le Canard enchaîné began to publish a series of articles that it said revealed Boulin had taken undue advantage of his position to obtain favourable terms on a series of real estate deals in the French Riviera.

The paper printed photographs of letters on official ministry letterhead that purported to show that Boulin had tried to get government representatives in the region to authorize construction of 26 houses in an area where buildings were barred for environmental reasons, and that Boulin tried to get Henri Tournet, the property developer at the center of the scandal, promoted to the Legion of Honor.

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